Sutherland Springs, by Joe Holley

The mass shootings we read about with too much regularity are always shocking.  But few are more shocking than when a murderer attacks a house of worship, killing people gathered for worship and fellowship.  Joe Holley tells the tragic but hopeful story of such a shooting in a rural Texas community in Sutherland Springs: God, Guns, and Hope in a Texas Town.  Most of us still remember the tragic news in the Fall of 2017, dozens killed and injured by a madman with a gun during morning worship at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas.  Holley spent a year among the people of Sutherland Springs and came away with insights about faith and guns.

Holley went for a deep dive in the culture and history of Sutherland Springs and its people.  To be honest, it was more background and history than I wanted to knowt.  As a Texan, I enjoyed some of the Texas historical trivia regarding Sutherland Springs and the area.  But it really didn't add a lot to the meat of the book.  The chapters on the killer's history and mental illness, including his history of violence and domestic abuse, really get to the core of the issue.  His history, and the Air Force's failure to report him to other agencies on multiple occasions, are all you need to know about a possible prevention of this unspeakable act of violence.

Holley's description of the attack itself and the events surrounding it put the reader on the scene, taking a tragic headline and making it a real human tragedy.  Now I know these people and these families, and I have seen in detail what happened on that horrible day.  Again, it may be more than I wanted to know--details about the families and their histories--but Holley is committed to bringing them to life for the reader.

Holley seems to have a grudging respect for the Christian faith of the people of Sutherland Springs.  Even as he writes about their steadfastness and confidence in God in spite of the tragedy, I felt a subtext or tone of "can you believe these fundamentalist rubes?"  For the most part, he was fair and detached, but he found it hard to relate to their trust in God's sovereignty and their peaceful acceptance of God's will in the face of grief.

He was less charitable about their faith in guns.  He does not approve of their tendency, even after the shooting, to double down on the "good guy with a gun" theory of being ready with a loaded gun and willing to use it.  Holley concludes,

They bear living witness to their faith--in God, the Giver of life, and in guns, precision instruments of death. Two faiths irreconcilable, it seems to me.  With due respect to their awful experience on that Sunday morning in November, I would argue that we need them--this nation needs them--to take the side of life.  Without guns.

Sutherland Springs personalizes and chronicles a tragic event in Texas history.  Holley shows a lot of respect for the victims' stories, a grudging respect for their faith, and very little respect for their stance on gun ownership.  I wish he would have delved more into the mind and motivations of the killer; it felt like some of that was passed over too briefly.  But all in all, Sutherland Springs is sure to be the definitive story of this tragic day.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!